


Forwards

by HufflepuffHumour



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Remix, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Injury Recovery, Post-Framework Universe (Marvel), The Framework Universe (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-14 16:56:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14140416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HufflepuffHumour/pseuds/HufflepuffHumour
Summary: During Episode 5x14—Close to the episode but I put my own spin on it to mix it up a bit.—Fitz, if he had been more like The Doctor than himself. More like he was in the Framework. He does things that seem awfully familiar but doesn't regret them.





	Forwards

**Author's Note:**

> So this is probably a little rushed but I'm still going to post it.  
> —  
> I like myself some extra drama/angst so that's exactly what I did with this. You know, just in case you weren't traumatised enough. x  
> —  
> Since I don't know what it's like having a mental illness and want to respect everyone that has one, I'm not going to guess what it's like. In this you'll be inside of Simmons's head.  
> —  
> Hope you enjoy! x

Jemma Simmons walked into Yo-Yo's room and found Mack walking on his newly injured leg. She made a fuss about it and ushered for him to take the pressure off it. That’s when it hit her. She remembered something. 

“Have Fitz or Daisy checked in yet?” the scientist asked Yo-Yo and Mack. 

“No, he’s still out there, looking for her.” Mack said looking down at her, as there was quite a height difference. 

“Stay with her.” Jemma ordered, not making eye contact with him. 

She left the room. 

———

Jemma was concerned about her husband. It wasn’t like him to go off for that long without telling anyone anything. He had also been acting quite strange that day. Talking about The Doctor. Considering Fitz said he had appeared, he had yet to make an appearance. That’s what made her suspicious. 

Simmons was speed-walking around the base now. Hunting for Fitz. She didn’t really have an idea, where he could be. But conveniently she overheard some shouting. Not that it was a good thing, it was just a clue towards where he could be. She followed the sound. 

———

“No!” Fitz yelled, clutching his head between his hands. 

“Fitz!” Jemma called out, as she stormed through the curtains, into the room. The sight she then had in front of her was truly shocking. Fitz was wearing slightly bloody gloves and holding a scalpel. Behind him was Daisy strapped to an operating table. 

“Simmons...help me...” the Inhuman whispered when catching sight of the new arrival. Hearing the pain in her voice sent a shiver down the Brit's spine. Both the women were utterly terrified. 

Jemma started taking steps around her husband. Not quite sure what to do. She was trying to understand him. To understand what was going through his head. Her breathing became ragged.

“Put the scalpel down.” She said gently, trying not to startle the clearly stressed engineer, who proceed to close his eyes and shake his head lightly as if the conversation wasn’t about him. 

Simmons eyed the scalpel again wondering if he had even heard her. 

“Fitz.” She said a little louder this time. 

“What? It’s not me. It’s not me–it’s–“ Fitz looked around as if he were looking for someone. Not seeing anyone there, he looked confused. 

Jemma follows his gaze but spots nothing. She looks back at him. She started to understand what was going on. And it broke her. 

“He w– He was– He was right here. Right here.” The Scot stuttered, trying to understand the happenings. Himself. He points at the floor beneath his feet. 

Simmons tries to smile and nods ever so slightly. His brain damage hadn’t caused any issues in a long time. He had done so well until now. He stuttered exactly as he had done long ago. She started to tear up, however, she was determined not to let a single tear fall. 

Fitz then vaguely motions towards the corner and spots the scalpel in his hand. His expression changes.

“What is happening?” the quiet and strained voice of Daisy came from the table. She sniffled. 

“Fitz...it wasn’t an anomaly. It was you.” Simmons said truthfully. There was no other way to go about this situation. She had to try and help him. And the only way that was possible, was to try and get into his head.

“No.” He insisted. 

“Programming the robots. Keeping everyone else occupied.” The biochemist continued. 

“To isolate Daisy. All part of his...plan. Of my plan.” Fitz muttered more to himself than to anyone else. He had started to follow along. She was achieving something. A tear fell as the man in front of her stared at the ground and teared up also. It looked as if his whole world had come crashing down on top of him. 

“Hey, look at me. We can work all of this out. You just need to let Daisy go.” She was losing him. He was getting lost in his own thoughts again. 

“No. There’s no turning back.” His tone had completely changed but still sounded awfully familiar. The Doctor.

“Of course there is–“ she started, her breath getting caught in her throat. 

“He planned for that, too.” He interrupted her.  
A gun cocked in the distance. And soon enough an armed robot came in, holding Deke hostage. The bot heads straight for Simmons and points a gun at her.

“You would point a gun at me?” That was the final straw. She wanted to break down. Do nothing other than help him. But she didn’t know how. He was too far in. 

“The Doctor would. He programmed it to make sure I’d go through with it.” Fitz concluded, striding towards Daisy. She whimpered. “He didn’t want to hurt you. Just like he didn’t want to hurt Mack. But it's just... I wouldn’t have done any of this if I didn’t believe it was going to work.”

“You don’t know it’s going to work.” Simmons stuttered desperately. 

“The science is sound. There are always risks involved. You know that, Jemma.” He said, sounding more like a hydra operative than ever. She flinched as he said her name. Something in her changed. She felt sick to the stomach. She pushed the feeling away. 

“You’re right, but...” She sniffled. She paused to catch her breath. He wouldn’t shoot her would he? Of course not. She took the risk at stepped forward towards the table. 

“Potentially paralysing Daisy or destroying the world are two massive risks, Fitz.” She reasoned. 

“Lets hope that that doesn’t happen.” Fitz said reaching beneath the table and whipping out a gun. He pointed it directly at her chest. Where her heart was.  
Jemma gasped. Oh, how this was bringing back some bad memories. Some of the worst. The Framework. 

“Fitz...” she whispered. Her airways had become tight. She was terrified of him. For the first time she was terrified of her own husband. Helping him was out of her control. He was superior to her. And that had never happened between the them before. They had always been equals. Always. They may have been a little competitive at the Academy but they were fully aware that when putting their minds together, they were twice as clever. “Fitz, please...” she took a slow step towards him. He took one backwards. “We can fix this. Together.”

“Just stop talking.” He snapped unwillingly as if he were being forced. Jemma teared up again. Walking up to him. Slowly. Wanting to hold him. Desperately. “Stay there,” he commanded. She didn’t listen. He scurried backwards. But didn’t have far to go. He was cornered. He panicked. He became stressed. Even more mentally unstable than before. He did the unthinkable. In one swift movement he aimed the gun down at her leg and pulled the trigger. Simmons yelped and clutched her leg, dropping to the floor. 

“Jemma!” Deke called, not being able to help her as the robot was keeping him back. 

Daisy became restless again and tried to slide out of her restraints. Failing miserably. Fitz stepped over his wife as if she meant nothing to him. He headed towards Daisy. Behind her to be precise. 

“No, no, no, no, no!” the Inhuman kept repeating. 

———

Daisy’s inhibitor was removed. She was forced to compress the gravitonium. She succeeded in sealing the dimension. However, she didn’t show any emotion after that. She was traumatised. She never said a word. 

———

Jemma was now in her own room. Sat on a couch with her leg resting on a foot rest. Deke helped her tend the bullet wound. She told him exactly what to do and he followed the instructions. She now had a bandage rapped around it with blood seeping through every now and then. 

Afterwards he stayed with her. They both talked for awhile. The conversation reached Fitz eventually. Which was expectable. But upsetting. She felt like he was losing himself. Therefore she was losing him too. She was emotionally vulnerable. She shared all of her thoughts. Deke listened. Very patiently. He understood her. He openly talked to her about his thoughts also. How he's such a baby when he’s sick. That his favourite sandwich can only be made right by her. It got her thinking. How could he possibly know all of that stuff?

“Because my mom used to tell me stuff about her parents all the time. She always spoke about her dad with so much love and admiration on her face. She said he was the best man she ever knew.” He smiled. It was clear that talking about his mother was something he did very fondly. “So I know that you can help Fitz. And I know that you two are gonna be okay. Because...the steps you take don’t need to be big,–“

“They just need to take you in the right direction.” She remembered saying that to Yo-Yo. The paused for another second of thought. “You’re our grandson.” She concluded. 

Deke nodded slowly, smiling. That did not last long before a disturbance occurred. 

“Just let me see her!” a familiar Scottish accent shouted angrily. 

Fitz came into view. He stopped in the doorway of the open door. Looking at the woman in front of her. His expression completely changing. Mack stumbled into view shortly after him, still limping from his wound.  
Jemma tensed up. Her eyes welled up, not sure how he was doing emotionally at that moment. She knew, he had been locked up after the episode with Daisy. But was unaware of anything after that. 

“I’m sorry, Jemma. He kinda just slipped out of my grasp.” Mack said apologetically. 

“It’s fine, Mack.” She smiled at the tall man.  
As Fitz entered, Deke got up and walked past him, looking at him funnily, before leaving the room. The Scot made his way to her right side, where his grandson had been moments ago, only a slightly bigger distance away. Simmons didn’t take his eyes off him. She was too afraid to. 

“Leave us,” Fitz said sharply to Mack with hints of The Doctor in his tone. “Please.”

Mack looked at Jemma, waiting to see what she thought before replying. She nodded courtly. The injured agent left the room. And closed the door on his way out. Knowing him, he was probably standing outside, just in case. 

Fitz’ eyes fell back onto her. Traveling from her wound to her eyes. She wiped away some of the tears that threatened to fall. They sat in silence for quite awhile. 

“I’m so sorry, Jemma.” He said. In her opinion that didn’t quite cut it after everything he’d done. She chose not to reply. He shifted closer to her. “I don’t know where to start,” he admitted after another moment of silence. “I’ve been feeling him for awhile now. Ever since the Framework. Only just started seeing him.”

“It’s your injury acting up. You used to see me too, when I wasn’t there.” She remembered how hard it was for him open up about that a long time ago. That was a hard day. Nothing compared to just then. 

“You were my conscience.” He sighed. 

“Then what was he?” she asked, generally interested. 

There was another moment of silence. He looked down at his lap. He was turning his wedding ring on his finger. 

“You had a psychic split but that dark persona is not you.” Her voice was cracking. He was letting his guard down. It was upsetting seeing him so vulnerable. 

“It is me. It’s not some evil doppelgänger. It. Was. Me.” He paused “I don’t deserve forgiveness, Jemma.”  
“Just like you don’t deserve me.” She didn’t mean to say it. She slipped. It made the situation worse. The effect she got was not intended. 

“You know what the worst part about this is? I still believe that it was the right thing to do.” Hearing him say it – it was heart breaking. A tear fell from his eye and landed on her hand that was keeping her propped up. That made her realise how close he actually was.

“And you are right. It’s such a–confusing area but if we are going to change the timeline, we are going to have to do things differently and make harder choices.” He had not yet found out about their relation to Deke.

“What does that make us?” He questioned, reaching for her other hand, her left one. She let him. He took it and laced his fingers between hers. 

“I don’t know.” She admitted sighing, leaning her head on his shoulder. Looking at their hands. There wedding rings clinked together occasionally. That was the only sound to be heard in the room. He brushed his lips across her forehead. 

“I really don’t know where we go from here.” Fitz muttered, pressing his ear against the top of the scientist's head. She closed her eyes. She was comfortable. She was home. 

“Forwards.” She whispered. Fitz moved his right over to his wife’s leg. Onto her wound. He brushed his thumb over her injury affectionately. They sat there in silence. Then it happened again. Sudden nausea. She quickly sat up and leaned over the edge of the sofa, retching.


End file.
